1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a perforating gun used for retaining a plurality of explosive charges in an angular phased array.
2. Related Art
Perforating guns are well known in the art and are used to form openings in subterranean wells, such as oil wells. Generally, a perforating gun is an assembly of explosive charges which, upon detonation, cause penetrations through the casing of a well bore into a geological formation allowing for the flow of, e.g., oil and gas, into the well bore, thence to the well head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,413, which issued on Oct. 24, 1989 and is entitled "Apparatus For Perforating Wells", discloses a perforating gun apparatus comprising one or more shaped charges retained either by being screwed into threaded holes in a strip carrier as illustrated in FIGS. 11 and 12 or by being retained in a four-wire carrier. The latter is illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 and is described at col. 3, lines 51-68. The four-wire carrier is comprised of two pairs 42 and 44 of straight, parallel wires (46, 48 and 50, 52) which contain bent portions 54 and 56 to accommodate the extensions 20 (FIG. 10) and 30 (FIG. 9) of the shaped charges 10. See column 3, lines 59-66, and column 4, lines 9-19. The pairs 42 and 44 of wires include connectors 58 and 60, respectively, which hold the wires together. See column 3, lines 67-68.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,901, which issued on Jun. 17, 1997 and is entitled "Spiral Strip Perforating System", discloses a perforating gun apparatus comprising an elongated spiral strip carrier on which a plurality of shaped charges is threadably mounted. Related (confinuation-in-part) U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,178, which issued on Sep. 2, 1997 and is entitled "Wave Strip Perforating System", discloses a spiral strip carrier which is not helical or spiral, but is described as a wave or non-linear zigzag form as seen in plan view. See the Abstract, FIGS. 10 and 11 and col. 4, line 48 to col. 5, line 25 of this Patent.